There is a simple solution for removing Islamic & other religious extremists from state funded schools!

There is a simple solution for removing Islamic & other religious extremists from state funded schools: it is to cease state funding for so called ‘faith’ schools and to remove religion (other than as a study [ie theoretical] subject) from schools curricula! [Please note that I wrote ‘simple’, NOT ‘easy’!]

Regrettable though this is, it must perforce include Christianity and the Church of England (C of E).

Indeed, if the C of E really is an integral part of England’s social fabric, it can survive with the support of its members.

Since 1905, there has been significant separation of the state and religion in France, which was more recently augmented by the “Charte de la laïcité à l’École” (secularism charter for schools) announced in September 2013. This is an approach we might usefully seek to implement in our own way.

Given the integral (institutional?) discrimination in some religions between men and women, the state’s ability to adjudicate between competing positions is compromised by its involvement in funding faith schools from the Exchequer. Ironically, if Winston Churchill had not been so rigidly restricted in his approach to education, the Education Act of 1944 piloted through the Commons by ‘RAB’ Butler would have been much more radical!

In drawing up the 1944 Education Bill, Butler gave consideration to a number of imaginative possibilities which included embracing Public Schools within its ambit, and changing the status of (for example) Church of England and Roman Catholic primary schools. It was due to the strenuous lobbying by Church authorities which led to their retention.

The previous major reform of education in Britain had been in 1906 which paved the way for increased numbers of state schools. By the 1930s, church schools both in respect of the standard of buildings and quality of teachers were generally inferior to the state schools operated by local councils.

The retention of church schools within England’s education system has proved to be somewhat of a stalking horse for more recently imported religions which, assisted by so called ‘equalities’ doctrine, has resulted in them being public funded. In short, we are funding religions which were not traditional to England and the English at (for example) the time of the Crusades or, for that matter, for centuries thereafter; here I include not only to Islam, but Judaism, Sikhism, and Hinduism.

Now, we are in the farcical situation in which not only are we funding the teaching of ideas (which, if the propaganda about minorities is true) are not those of the great majority, but also incurring yet further expenditure on ensuring that publicly funded educational facilities are not subverted or perverted by religious fanatics determined to propagate their alien practices and beliefs.

If there were no state funded faith schools and religion was solely taught as a theoretical rather than practising subject, it would be more difficult for ‘religionists’ of any persuasion to gain ingress to the educational system, there being no pretext for their presence. In this situation, schools in England could focus on teaching subjects more relevant to our daily life, and proponents of particular religious doctrines could fund their own teaching facilities in their own time.

Richard Austin ‘RAB’ Butler

Minister of Education 1941 to 1945

Forced to compromise over the status of public schools and church schools by Churchill & Church authorities